Changes

Jump to: navigation, search

Russian Orthodox Mission in China

22 bytes added, 03:28, May 23, 2009
add template
[[Image:RusMissionChina.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Compound of the Russian Orthodox Mission in Beijing, China]]
 
The '''Russian Orthodox Mission in China''', also known as the '''Russian Ecclesiastical Mission''', was the effort by [[Church of Russia]] to bring Orthodox Christianity to China. The mission originated in the seventeenth century after the forces of Chinese Emperor Kangxi (Kang Hsi) brought Russian captives, including an Orthodox [[priest]], to Beijing, China after the capture of the Russian fortress Albasin. The Mission continued until the [[Church of China]] formed in 1956 after the Communist Chinese government required the departure of non-Chinese church officials.
==History==
{{OrthodoxyinChina}}
The Russian Orthodox Mission in China had its beginnings with the capture of forty-five Russians when the Chinese Emperor Kangxi (Kang Hsi), of the Qing dynasty, captured Albasin, a Russian fortress on the Amur River. Among those captured was Fr. [[Maxim Leontev]], an Orthodox priest. He was brought with the prisoners to Beijing late in the year 1685. There he settled in the ambassadorial quarters in the north eastern section of the city and served his small community for twenty years, using a converted Chinese temple as his [[chapel]]. The [[chapel]] was [[consecration of a church|consecrated]] to the [[Holy Wisdom]] of God. In 1695, Fr. Maxim received documentation from the [[Metropolitan]] of Tobolsk recognizing the consecration of the church and directed Fr. Maxim to commemorate the Chinese emperor and to begin preaching to the Chinese. Fr. Maxim reposed in 1712, thus ending his informal mission.
8,921
edits

Navigation menu